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Sunday, April 5, 2015

Preparing for Easter Dinner

Blessed Triduum Everyone. We have been very busy the last couple of days, honoring our Lord and Savior, as we do each year at this time.

Thursday we spend at Mass celebrating the Last Supper at which our Lord washed the feet of his disciples and instructed them to go out to serve others. This is one of my favorite ceremonies as it is a reminder of what we are called to do as Christians each and every day. One of my favorite hymns is the Servant Song......

On Friday we spend the hours from 12-3 pm. meditating on the sacrifice our Lord made for us when he died on the cross. We do this by venerating the wood of the cross on which he died. It is a very solemn service filled with tradition and ceremony. We kneel before the wood of the cross and praise God for his sacrifice and love.

In the evening we celebrate the Tenebrae, which in laymen terms (in my own words) is the celebration of the funeral of Jesus. The service starts in light with chants, hymns, readings and psalms and ends in darkness at which time there is a loud clash of cymbals and the stomping of feet, beating of hymnals on pews creating a loud cacophany to immitate the world groaning at the loss of our Lord. The mourning ends as a single candle returns to the church representing the life of Christ reborn to save us all. It is a wonderful ceremony.

Saturday morning finds us all at the church for the blessing of the food, and then we all return home to prepare for the celebration that begins with the Easter Vigil at nightfall this evening. It is a long Mass. It is the Mass where all new catechumens are brought into our church through baptism. It is the time when all those who have not been fully initiated into our faith recieve the Sacraments of Hoy Communion and Confirmation. It is a time for all of us to rededicate ourselves and our lives to our God and Savior. It is my favorite Feast day of the year.

On Sunday, Frank will return for Easter Mass to help celebrate through song and music. I will stay home and get ready for our Easter Celebration. I shared my menu with you earlier in the week. This year we are having 20 people for dinner. I like for Easter to be a sit down, formal affair, if at all possible. This is possible with 20 but anything more than that and we would serve dinner buffet style...that, too, would be fine....there is always room for others at our dinner table.

Since we are able to have a sit down meal this year, I prepared place markers for the tables so the guests would know where to sit and have a little something to take home with them afterwards. I filled these eggs with candies and marked each with the name of a guest.

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